Rating: 
Summary: A Pleasant Surprise
Review: Doing a bit of deep dive into a member's list of book choices while searching for another book, I came across this title. Reading the description, I found I was definitely intriqued. I am now a completely totally devoted Fford fan, having purchased the other two books and eargerly awaiting the fourth, which, according to the author, is due out in August. No need to re-cap the plot since most other reviewers before me have done so, I'll just say I'm most pleased by Fford's ability to capture such a complicated female character and to bring to life some of my favorite literary ones. Since the plots are often difficult to describe, I simply buy the books for friends -the ultimate nod I can offer a book.
Rating:
Summary: In a class by itself!
Review: This is an exceptionally delightful novel and one I almost missed as I don't usually read fantasy or science fiction. In Mr. Fforde's world of make-believe, society revolves around all things literary. It is the year 1985 and Special Operative/agent Thursday Next is on the trail of arch villain Acheron Hades, who has recently stolen the original manuscript of Charles Dickens's novel, "Martin Chuzzlewit." This manuscript is eventually recovered but then Hades sets his sites on an even bigger national literary treasure, "Jane Eyre." The pursuit of Hades and the eventual resolution to the Eyre theft makes for one very humourous and rollicking adventure through time and space and the stolen manuscript itself.This book is nothing less than brilliant. Mr. Fforde is a very talented writer with a great imagination and a terrific sense of humor. The names he uses for the characters in the book frequently are double entendres and the manner in which the ending of "Jane Eyre" is changed during the course of the book is ingenious. It's not necessary to read Jane Eyre before reading The Eyre Affair (as a synopsis of the plot is included) but it really adds to the enjoyment of the book if you have a copy on hand. It had been years since I'd read Jane Eyre but luckily my teenage daughter had a copy that I could refer to. It was a lot of fun to refresh my memory and also to find the passages where Thursday enters the novel or the places where Rochester and Jane leave. This may sound confusing but once you start reading the book it will fall into place. I loved it and look forward to Thursday's "next" adventure!
Rating:
Summary: Only FIVE? 55--75--105--1,005 ARE NOT ENOUGH!
Review: Only "Losing Julia" has made me remove my hat, too long firmly planted about my ears, to throw into the air, and do a little shouting over house-tops! But, "THE EYRE AFFAIR" has made me absolutely giddy with delight! "The Eyre Affair" has sent me back to Bronte dizzy with joy and rapture. "The Eyre Affair" has made me drunk with the joy of what novels should be, but so rarely are! This is a book to share with good friends. Well, maybe only literate friends, as the inside jokes are one-liners you'll laugh about into the twenty-second century. If your friends don't get "it", write them off as hopelessly illiterate morons! Mr. Fforde incorporates pun, metapnor, simile, and allusion with the deftness of a Harry Houdini trick and the deadliness of a J.K. Rowlings spell. . . The prose is deafeningly prosaic. The references are maddeningly obscure! The plot is just way too much fun. . .and the outcome is--well, the outcome is--Oh hell, the final outcome is just so much fun, that the ride before you slid into the roller-coaster ride ticket booth, you have forgotten the ride you've just had, and beg the attendant to send you around one more time. I'm in love with Thursday Next. A woman who not only takes care of herself, but protects Literature and loves it so much, she'll make it better. Gentle reader, this book will make you laugh, make you shiver in utter horror and supense, and cower in abject terror! Then, the bood will make you laugh, shiver, cower, and then mix up the mixture! It's a book you can share with your literary friends, and if THEY don't get it, they are NOT on your next cocktail party list. But most of all, "The Eyre Affair" is a grand read, start to finish. Just too much fun. When you finish the last page, you want to turn to page one, and start all over! And like all classic novels, you will. Start over again, I mean, because it's just that good!
Rating: 
Summary: I was disappointed
Review: When I read the description of the book and saw the illustration on the cover, I expected an action oriented version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, the wonderful play and movie that takes place inside Shakespeare's Hamlet. Other than a minor character being thrust into a Woodsworth poem where she sits quietly by a lake and a very brief episode in which our heroine is instrumental in causing Rochester to fall, there is no action inside literature until four fifths of the way though the book and that action is no where near so clever as Rosencrantz. Most of the book is a rather lackluster tough cop story that pales in comparison to James Ellroy. It is set in an alternate history some of which is good and some of which is pointless. The good involves a society that takes literature far more seriously than do we. The pointless is an alternate history in which the Crimean War has endured for 140 years without end such that the soldiers who charged with the Light Brigade did so in armor rather than as cavalry. ... The military is evil and lying. Corporations are evil and lying. Religion is a joke. None of this is intelligent or original and may best be described as boring. These characters are not believable nor particularly likeable. The plot is, well, plodding. The biggest problem, however, is the presentation of the concept itself which is simply not logical. Illogic may be forgiven in a "realistic" story for indeed life is full of illogic. However, illogic in a fantasy story, and this is primarily a fantasy story, is unforgivable because it destroys the reader's ability to willingly suspended disbelief.
Rating: 
Summary: A pleasing foray into a different world...
Review: The Eyre Affair is really a book about a world somewhat like ours, but vastly removed from it due to the widespread love of plays, fiction and poems, which achieve such focus as we have afforded the movies today, and the commonplace supernatural creatures who live there, and the peculiar technologies that people develop. The people in Ffordes world are so obsessed with the written word that a Special Ops division has been set up in England to investigate literary crimes. The Eyre Affair revolves around a series of these crimes, which culminates in the kidnapping of Jane Eyre right out of Charlotte Bronte's novel, a feat afforded by a strange technology, misused by a megacorporation and the government. This book is an eyepopper, a fresh and unusual fantasy. Although it has several subplots that occasionally left me considering how things tied together, I kept reading. This is a great one for a bibliophile, but most could read this and understand the literary references Fforde expounds on. As a thriller, it had me turning pages all the way to the end.
Rating:
Summary: unique, exciting and one of the best debuts of the year
Review: THE EYRE AFFAIR is one of the most starkly original books I have read in years. Not knowing what to fully expect, I never made it past the first fifty pages upon my initial reading of it last year in spite of the universal acclaim that accompanied it. I, therefore, decided to give it another chance and am quite glad I did. Thursday Next is our heroine. She is what is characterized as a literary detective. She pursues our villain, Acheron Hades, an old professor of hers who now kidnaps characters from original manuscripts and holds them for ransom. Thursday, in her quest to thwart the plans of Acheron, must enter into the stories themselves to save the characters. One of Acheron's most vile threats is to remove all traces of Jane Eyre in the novel bearing her name. Is this novel a mystery? Probably not. I would characterize this work as a science fiction/ fantasy thriller. The plot of a mad villain wreaking havoc on the free world who can only be stopped by the hero probably is the reason for its enthusiastic inclusion in the mystery genre. I place a premium on originality and this book definitely is just that. There is much that the reader must understand and accept before they can get truly swept up in the exciting narrative. Among them is the ability to enter into books through a special portal. Time can be traveled both backwards and forwards and can actually stop as evidenced by the infrequent visits of Thursday's time hopping father. Names are truly wonderful. Unforgettable examples include (besides Thursday Next) Braxton Hicks and Jack Schitt. The book is full of playful references to words and literature and never takes itself truly seriously. THE EYRE AFFAIR is unique, exciting and one of the best debuts of the year.
Rating:
Summary: A Literary Dream Come True!
Review: "The Eyre Affair" brings to life the dream of almost every avid reader, to step through the pages of their favorite novel and meet the characters. In this case, the book is "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte, thus the title. And the reader does, in fact, meet Mr. Rochester, Mrs. Fairfax, Bertha Mason Rochester, Grace Poole, and even Pilot the dog through the experience and eyes of our heroine Thursday Next, Special Operative in literary detection. Unfortunately we do not meet Ms. Eyre, as the novel is told in the first person and no one wants to distract her from her mission of forwarding the plot. What world has the reader stepped into? Where exactly are we that such things are possible? Jasper Fforde's London of 1985 is familiar in many ways. Her citizens look much as they do now, although styles have a retro look. People watch TV, listen to their favorite music, go to work each day to pay the rent and they still fall in love...and out of it. However, the computer chip has not been invented nor has the jet engine, so people's eyes don't glaze over staring at computer monitors. They travel long distances by ship or dirigibles. The Crimean War, between England and Czarist Russia is in its 131st year - England's Viet Nam taken to greater depths...or heights. The Russian Revolution never happened, so no Cold War, Lenin, or Stalin...but serfs are still around, I guess. The nation's favorite pastime is, of all things, literature. These folks read big time! Many change their names to John Milton, Charles Dickens, George Gordon, Lord Byron, etc., and Shakespeare denialists abound. This is a time when people can literally get lost in a book...or poem. Wales is an independent country, The People's Republic of Wales and England is a police state. Thursday Next, is a tough but tender lady with a dry, wry sense of humor, and a veteran of a very bloody Crimean campaign in which she lost her beloved brother. Her job as "operative grade I" for SO-27, the Literary Detective Division of the Special Operations Network is to track down stolen manuscripts and spot forgeries. She is recruited by SpecOps to track down Acheron Hades, one of the world's most heinous criminals. He had been her professor at university and she had successfully avoided his numerous attempts at seduction, perhaps the only girl who got away. Thus Ms. Next is able to resist the effects of his hypnotic voice and persuasive abilities to this day. Hades has stolen a device that allows him to enter books and cause great mischief...perhaps irrevocable damage to great literature, like absconding with characters and altering plots forever. We all know by the title that Jane Eyre becomes a target. And the mystery and adventures commence. I am not a fan of sci-fi, fantasy or alternate history, but this book is a blast, especially for those who love their lit. The jokes, puns, allusions are very clever and often made me laugh out loud. Fervent Baconians constantly feud with staunch Shakespeareans about who wrote the world's greatest plays. Shakespeare's Richard III plays every Friday night at a local theater, a la "The Rocky Horror Show" with audience participation. Thursday's dad, a rogue ChronoGuard, travels through time haphazardly to avoid capture but always visits his daughter, even if just for seconds. Mr. Fforde's writes tight, skilled, imaginative prose. He has come up with a remarkable character in Ms. Next, and since this book has been destined to be part of a series, we will be reading more about her and her slightly mad adventures. I can't wait!
JANA
Rating:
Summary: loose yourself!
Review: This book is Harry Potter for bibliophiles. No, really. The HP books are so popular, because they bring out our childhood dreams while still staying (at least, partially) grounded in everyday world we know. The adventures of Thursday Next are build on the premise of being able to enter the works of fiction and interact with the characters. If you ever dreamed about this - you'd love the book. Also the "real world of Ms.Next (I mean, outside the books) is a treat for a book-lover. With tidbits like collected cards not of football players, but of book characters. I enjoyed every page of this novel!
Make no mistake, this book has as much to do with pulp stories as it has with the classic literature of ages past. And while I would love the characters to be more three-dimensional, I don't find the lack of depth of characters to be a drawback of this book. The sheer number and imagination of Ffordes ideas helped me to get lost in a good book.
Rating:
Summary: Hasn't really earned its praise
Review: This little book was amusing at first. It boasts a lot of creative and interesting tidbits, but ultimately fails to do anything but titilate readers with flashy narrative devices. I've read this book twice, and I have to say that, having done so, Fforde's debut novel has even less to recommend it than I originally thought. Most of the characters have quizzical, if not nonexistent, motivations and a good portion of the book involves tangents that lead nowhere or fall flat. He doesn't even do anything interesting with the characters from 'Jane Eyre.' All in all, the book is melodramatic, confounding and, above all, cynical, relying as it does on bells and whistles sure to draw the attention of readers (and especially reviewers) hungry for anything remotely clever in concept. True, there are some amusing parts, and the prose is competent, but there's no accounting for the sensation this book was.
Rating:
Summary: A good book to get lost in
Review: I got this book mainly because of its connection to classic literature. I can't say I knew much about it before I read it except that it had something to do with Jane Eyre (a book I love). I was pleased to find that this book appeals to me on more levels than just that one. It is fast-paced and intriguing with an affable protagonist for whom I couldn't help but root, in addition to being quite humorous (imagine a literary geek crossed with Monty Python - I loved the bookworms!). I read this book at lightning speed and am now salivating at the thought of its sequel (Lost In A Good Book). This book won't appeal to everyone. I know there are plenty of people out there who detest classic literature, abhor the humor of Monty Python or any sort of absurdist, and/or are not keen on reading books full of unorthodox ideas. However, if those remarks do not apply to you, then The Eyre Affair comes with my highest recommendation.
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